Correctly identifying the left and right shoes is a task that many children and some adults find difficult. Individuals that have difficulty or are unable to distinguish between left and right can be frustrated and demoralized by their lack of success and suffer diminished self-esteem because of their reliance on someone else to perform the task. Furthermore, the necessity of putting on shoes can cause frustration for care-givers and parents especially when dealing with an independent minded person who finds such aid objectionable.
Attempts have been made to aid persons in correctly orientating their shoes. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,586,888; 5,240,418; 4,823,606; 3,258,858; WO94/05176; GB2,167,592; GB2,305,766 and GB2,392,294 all disclose various methods of indicating handedness using pictorial representations that are applied directly to the shoes. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,269,690; 3,041,743; and JP App. No. 08292808 describe the use of magnets to aid the user in correctly positioning shoes. Other methods are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,746,249; 5,529,499; and 3,906,642.